Why PIC ?

 When I first started selling kits I used the Motorola MC68hc705j1a, a 20 pin EPROM based microcontroller. see:

https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/01/before-flash-there-was-eprom-that.html

Motorola would usually promote their new chips with an offer.  For the MC68hc705c8 they had a programmer and a course that sold for something like $68.  Then if you took a test (and passed it) they'd refund your money.  They also had courses for the 68HC16 which which included an intro to DSP.  When the j1a chip came out I was able to build my own programmer.  Later I bought a boatload of j1a chips for 33 cents each, the only problem was that the seller had ground off the part number !  

I really liked the Motorola chips, the assembly language was easy to use with few gotchas.  But that's not to say there weren't problems.  For example Motorola had an EEPROM based chip, the 68HC805 but they were unobtainium.  And the EPROM based J1a was VERY hard to obtain with an erasable package.  Also, Motorola seemed to have a few BIG customers, don't think they were interested in small fry.  And when those big guys moved on to different chips in their designs, Motorola dropped the old chips.

I started using the PIC chips when the Embedded Research guys started selling their TiCK keyer chip.  A really neat design, the TiCK used an 8 pin PIC chip and also used a piezo sounder (which I hadn't used before).  So I tried the PIC chips and found that they were powerful (faster than the Motorola 68HC chips) but quirky.  They took a lot of getting used to - I stuck with assembly language which might have been a mistake.

Again at that time the PIC chips were also EPROM based but unlike the Motorolas, it was easy to buy the PICs in erasable form from Digi-key and others.  Eventually the older PICs were supplanted by newer Flash / EEPROM chips (electrically erasable) which didn't need UV light.  But the original EPROM chips were still available.  And the new Flash / EEPROM chips were pin compatible.  So as the new PICs came out I was able to offer more features at the same or lower price with the new PIC chips.

PICs also had some nice features that the Motorolas didn't, built in RC clocks for non-critical timing applications, built-in pullup resistors for switch inputs.

As time went on I came to appreciate the PIC chips if for no other reason that they have been available now for DECADES, unheard of in electronics, so old designs don't have to be continually redone for sourcing.

But the PIC idea is that the newer chips are often cheaper and more available, great !  But that requires migrating to a new chip.  For a better programmer than me this is probably not a problem but it can be pure agony for me.  The newer chips are much more complicated and require a lot of turning off of things that I don't need - sometimes there are mystery failures that almost require exorcism, they are diabolically hard to find.  And remember this is starting with code that I know is working.

So, that's why PIC, not so much the price or performance but continuing availability is the big advantage of a PIC.  They still seem to be at least aware of little customers like me.  I don't even know if Motorola as a microcontroller maker even exists anymore.

I do still have plenty of the MC68HC705J1A chips if anyone needs them, just be aware that the part numbers were ground off :)

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm